No co-education in universities, Taliban’s first fatwa
Taliban-affiliated officials have said in their first fatwa that women will no longer be allowed to sit in the same classes with boys in private and government universities. According to media reports, Taliban officials in Herat province of Afghanistan have issued an order stating that there is no substitute and justification for continuing co-education and it should be abolished. The fatwa came after a three-hour meeting between university lecturers, owners of private institutions and Taliban officials.
The head of higher education of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Mullah Farid, who was representing the Taliban at the meeting in Herat, has said that co-education should be abolished as the system is the root of all evil in society.
Farid suggested as an alternative that female lecturers or elderly men who are virtuous are allowed to teach female students and there is no substitute or justification for co-education.
Meanwhile, lecturers in Herat province have argued that government universities and institutions can manage classes separately, but because of the limited number of female students in private institutions, the latter cannot afford to create separate classes.
The lecturers also said that since private institutions cannot afford separate classes, thousands of girls may remain deprived of higher education.
Afghanistan has a mixed system of co-education and segregated classes, with schools conducting separate classes, while co-education is implemented in government and private universities and institutions across the country.
There are reportedly about 40,000 students and 2,000 lecturers in private and government universities and institutions in the province.
The Taliban have taken over Afghanistan, but here they are lacking
Despite its major military offensive over the past week, the Taliban does not have access to the billions of dollars from its central bank and International Monetary Fund that will keep the country running during a turbulent shakeup. Those funds are largely controlled by US and international institutions, a potential leverage point as tense evacuations proceed from the airport in Kabul’s capital.
Tens of thousands of people have yet to be evacuated before the United States’ August 31 deadline to withdraw its troops from the country.
But the Taliban does not currently have the institutional framework to obtain funding – a sign of the challenges it could face as it tries to control an economy that has been in power since being in power two decades ago. Urbanized and has tripled in size. The shortage could lead to an economic crisis that would lead to a deep humanitarian crisis for the roughly 36 million Afghans living in the country.
“If they don’t have jobs, they don’t get food,” said Anthony Kordsman, who advised the US government on Afghan strategy and worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The Taliban must find the answer.”
Stranded funds are one of the few possible sources of US government pressure on the Taliban. But Kordsman said, “For there to be a pressure point, you have to be willing to negotiate in ways that are accepted by the Taliban.”
As of now, the Taliban government cannot access nearly all of Afghanistan’s central bank’s $9 billion in reserves, much of which is held by the New York Federal Reserve. Afghanistan was also expected to access about $450 million from the International Monetary Fund on 23 August, which has effectively blocked the release due to a “lack of clarity” regarding the recognition of a new Afghan government.
(With inputs from IANS and AP)
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